


Audacity

by stellarstatelogic



Series: Forerunner Chronicles: Mundus Calendarium [1]
Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, One-Sided Relationship, POV Third Person, Uneasy Allies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-06 08:11:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6746218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarstatelogic/pseuds/stellarstatelogic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was a ship which he has built for her, along with his aspiration to become her harbor, but her heart has always sailed afar, beyond the boundaries where he could never reach.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Audacity

_**MUNDUS CALENDARIUM ECUMENE XIX 99814** _

_**= Nebula Engine Foundary, System: Classified, Sector: Classified, Thema: Classified =** _

 

 

The construct's silhouette barely eclipses the distant sun and buried deep within the treacherous planetesimals, never too significant by its subliminal visuals. Such was the significance of the Builders, whose works were often born within the grace of many shadows, of established Foundries as such with the mindset of both securing resource and making strategic stands. The  particular Foundry has however taken up a significant task, as one of the more delicate ones built for construction experiments, the cradle of many conceptual prototypes. Its long corridors comprised by multiple rings of hard-light were built to connect multiple meteorites, webbing out and forming an organic, three-dimensional honeycomb-like structure for transformable temporary passage.

  

A Forerunner of pale-colored armor sled through the passage of near zero gravity with a slenderer one in dark-robe closely behind him. The two passed through the series of stabilizing rings of bluish light glowing and dimming in its own sequences. Surrounding themselves, the Foundry worked diligently and tirelessly on their creation, forging and sealing micro-components and embedding countless shards of bluish and purplish slipspace crystals unto one another. A Leviathan formed gradually into shape, being reconstructed by its ultramarine scales upon pale white bones. Fragment by fragment, layer upon layer.

“Do you like what you see, Librarian?” the Forerunner asked as he slowed down his momentum; his opaque mask of cold blue turned towards the construction site, and apparently could not hide his sense of pride upon seeing his creation.

“I would have assumed it be a vain waste of slipspace crystals if I would be ignorant of its intended purpose;” the other commented in a self-reflective tone while glancing over towards the busy workforce; her black-colored helmet slightly tilted, observing, and contemplating. “I, for one, does not inquire its necessity.”

“What I have designed was indeed conceptual,” he confirmed; “and time has proven its eventual necessity. You were the provider of reasons. A motive, for it to become reality.”

He led her through a set of interlocking doors of which she knew would become the airlock of the vessel, then through a series of teleporting device to enter a bigger, circular room of the lower deck of an obvious setting of engine room. He pushed himself through with a light tap on his feet, then stopped and landed upon the metal flooring. His form proud and still as he stood just before a large engine core of sleek, geometrical metal casing, with its seams continuously lit and dimmed in a soft, docile rhythm of purplish blue hue.

He stretched the both of his arms wide open in a presenting manner: “Well?”

She has likewise settled down before him in grace innate and subtle before she then slowly scanned around as if she was trying to immerse herself into an imagination of the end-product out of the mere infrastructure of which they were standing in. Then after a moment, she finally approached towards the engine core where he was standing, and ran a gloved hand over its velvety surface.

“The _[Nebula Engine]_ ,” she mused quietly, then inhaled deeply, as if she would be swallowing a great amount of grief; “It is something to your sole capability, Master Builder. I only wish this to be in mass production at this dreadful hour of our civilization. We could restart and seed life and all of its possibilities in a galaxy even further – far from the Parasite’s reach. Yet it is here, felt by my grasp, for a mere purpose for a selfish expedition for a tale so old and perhaps dead.” She let out a slow, morbid sigh, and turned slightly towards her companion: “Master Builder, I appreciate the privilege – of which I do not deserve, should it be in a less desperate time.”

“Neigh, Librarian,” he approached closer to her and spoke in an encouraging tone with his head likewise tilted in an angle to meet her line of sight. “Your theory on Fractal Synthesis is sufficient enough to entitle yourself to such feat of technological achievement.”

“Fractal Synthesis was your established theory.”

“With your work credited as its primary inspiration,” he insisted.

She responded him with silence with both arms folded across her chest. She could almost picture how his bare face would be snickering with his gleaming eyes all beneath that heavy helmet and opaque visor. His eyes always gleams brighter when he assumes he had won over their debates.

“As long as no Huragok was harmed during its production,” her head finally swayed into a tilted posture of cynical humor.

“They are not worthy enough to put themselves directly at your service;” the Master Builder shook his head with the verdict, as if he would be completely oblivious towards the possibility of she became repulsed by his statement. “No one is worthy enough.”

“But the galaxy sadly never serves itself, and we are here to its cruel disposal.”

The Master Builder let out a dry, quiet chuckle, affirming her wit. “There is more,” he continued by summoning a holographic command panel with an opening gesture of his fingers. “I’ve employed a new para-gravitational system.”

“Conceptual?” she gazed towards the panel.

“No,” he replied. “It is in fact conventional, only far more _sophisticated_. Efficient.”

It was a riddle, of which the Librarian has seen it coming. Her long acquaintance with her political rival had her adapted into his thinking pattern. She knew well that the Master Builder is the kind who would always be sparking spontaneous quizzes. His tone would’ve given away the answer, the subtle detest and more prominent superiority in his voice was a giveaway.

“The most logical presumption would be that you have taken inspiration from the Didact's Shielded World unto this vessel,” she implied finally after her fair share of evaluation within her own mind.

“It was not an inspiration, it was a renovation,” he sneered aspiringly. “I have made it **much** better, compared to what your husband have designed fifteen thousand years ago.”

She simply nodded – it wasn’t an intended flattering; the Master Builder always manages to invent things that would more or less amuse her. The Builders always had their pride, and Master Builders were excellent participant in politics, but even an old Forerunner like the Librarian would have to admit, that what had made Faber a particularly formidable rival would be his keen senses in pinpointing problems, complimented with his relentless effort in adapting knowledge just to have the problem solved from its very core. The apparent genius, however, has his own flaws. His pride would be one, and his perpetual yearning of an equal rival would be another. Both poisonous and self-destructive and for now, it seems as if he would be content to have her around. He saw her as his muse amidst the infernal affairs, and that was all that’s enough for him to live for a cause.

“But where would be its gravitational pivot within such a small vessel?” She inquired -- almost as if it would be a challenge, albeit tenderly, with her acquired sense of interest.

“Theoretically, it should be distributed evenly without its carapace, along with its reconciliation mechanism. It is exactly why this vessel needs its scales.” He explained poetically as if an artist commenting on his own creation. “They shall generate gravity as it travels, and any tear shall be healed as soon as a jump is initiated.”

Serendipity.

“A **compound** Probability Mirror;” she chanted the phrase from deep within her mind with eyes widened. “Faber––”

But he promptly put a finger to the lower visor of her helmet, of where her lips would be beneath: “ _Ariola_ ,” he looked down towards her, with the soft of his whispers commanding yet too passionate to be dictating. “Speak no further...”

She felt frozen to his touch, the initiatives halted, bound by his sudden advance and audacity. Her silent eyes stared back at his mask that was reflectively emotionless, awaiting for the resurgence of his emotion to pass, for him to realize his demeanor.

“We shall proceed, many agendas need to be meet as of today.” With a change of his tone back into the usual cool, he withdrew his finger and clutched it into a fist briefly before releasing it once again: “We shall put this system to its actual test, at least, it has been stable during its previous twenty test runs. The simulation ran perfectly, but I am skeptical on a particular factor, a set of numbers did not meet my expectation.”

The Librarian tilted her head inquisitively towards the Master Builder.

“Field experiment;” he ground his teeth at the apparent bug to his programming. “I cannot entrust it to you without it being perfect.”

“And this is why you have me here with you.” She felt her back straightens up even further to his intention. “To have ourselves validate our own experiment?”

“Induce interior gravitational simulation;” he commanded his ancilla with his back faced towards her; while she should almost imagine that subtly triumphant snicker on his face.

That curve on the Master Builder’s yet-seen lips however, did not last long when the weight suddenly burdened himself and his accomplice. The force of artificial gravity has instead directed the two harshly towards the back of the room who finally landed themselves unto the Engine’s casing. He would have nearly crashed into his companion who had her back against the Engine just a brink earlier than himself, if he didn’t raise the both of his hands around the Librarian to prevent himself from pressing onto her much frailer form.

“Master Builder–” the Librarian inhaled with the top her helmet being pinned down by his own, forming a rather awkward and intimate posture. “The force is apparently not directing itself as intended. I suppose you need to implement some kind of stabilizer, like those within the Shielded Worlds.”

“Stabilizers are primitive,” he insisted defiantly. “This should be functioning; the system is running well according to all my simulations.”

“Aya.”

“……Perhaps the system simply needs to be… further calibrated,” he hissed into a whisper of subtle annoyance while turning off the simulated force, though apparently still reluctant to remove his helmet away from hers.

“Apparently so, Master Builder,” the Librarian confirmed quietly before gently push their collision apart.


End file.
